


Heaven is a Place on Earth with You

by AberrantCaptain



Category: Death Note, Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Coming of Age, M/M, Post-Canon, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:20:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22430026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AberrantCaptain/pseuds/AberrantCaptain
Summary: On January 26, 2010, Mail Jeevas and Mihael Keehl were killed in the final days of the Kira case.On February 1, 2010, Mail Jeevas was reborn, followed ten months later by Mihael Keehl.Six years later, they meet again.
Relationships: Matt | Mail Jeevas/Mello | Mihael Keehl
Comments: 34
Kudos: 69





	1. 2016

The first time it hit him, Matt was six years old and had just been transferred to a private school, aimed at highly gifted students. _Your son_ _’s smart. He needs more than what we can provide,_ his mother had been told. She’d paged through the pamphlet, stopping when she reached the page that covered the cost.

“I appreciate it, but we can’t afford this.” It was entirely out of the question. She’d never seen that amount of money before in her life, much less per annum.

“I’m aware of the issues, Mrs. Jeevas. The costs will be covered. We have an anonymous benefactor who’s offered to cover everything. Tuition, room, board, textbooks, everything. You won’t have to worry about anything regarding the cost.”

“But…” Mrs. Jeevas looked taken aback at the amount of charity being offered. “I didn’t ask for that.”

“I did. Matthew’s test scores put him at a genius level. He’s already been accepted; all you have to do is sign for him.”

“Who’s paying for this?” Mrs. Jeevas was concerned about who had this sort of money to spend on her son, of all people. Not that she didn’t know he was smart—she knew. Everyone knew. But this…

“As I said, an anonymous benefactor. I can’t offer anything beyond that, other than that the funding comes from a person who values education and hates to see someone like your son in a place where he can’t reach his full potential.”

~~~~~

Matt was transferred to the new school after winter break. He said good bye to his classmates before Christmas, not entirely understanding that he wouldn’t be returning. On his mother’s recommendation, he made a Christmas card for his benefactor, thanking him for paying for his new school’s tuition and expenses.

The trip to his new school felt long. Matt boarded a train with his mother early in the morning, and by the time they arrived at the town closest to the school, the sun had already set. They stayed at a small inn that night. At dinner, his mother mostly talked about how Matt needed to work hard, to show that he’d been the right choice for the scholarship. She made him promise to write her regularly and reminded him that she’d see him again as soon as she could, but that it wouldn’t be for a while. Even if she hadn’t said that, Matt knew, after how long the train ride had been, that he wouldn’t see her again until his next school break. If then.

In the morning, a car came into town to pick Matt up. He said goodbye to his mother there, despite the driver’s offer to let her visit the school. There wasn’t time before she had to catch her train home. Even with Matt’s schooling paid for, she still had to work.

Matt didn’t let himself cry until he car was well out of view of his mother. He knew she was sad enough without that.

~~~~~

It wasn’t that Matt never saw his mother again after that. It was rare though, and she slowly faded to the back of his mind, further away the longer he spent at the school. He had no idea what the cost for tuition was, only that it was more than his mother could afford and that someone else was covering it. He didn’t know who that person was, and he didn’t spend a lot of time wondering. At his age, it just didn’t seem that important. He went to his classes, did his homework, and generally tried not to get too distracted.

Boarding school was a whole new experience for him. He had a room all to himself, every class was small with no more than ten children to a group, and the library was huge. The children were all tested on their skills regularly, and the tests were a challenge (which hadn’t been the case at his old school). Matt’s scores were always good, so he didn’t spend much time worrying about them.

Matt’s seventh birthday took place a month after he arrived. He found out that birthdays were celebrated with other students in the dormitory. He hadn’t really made friends yet, but that didn’t stop the other children on his floor from enjoying the cake his birthday brought.

After his party, Matt went back to his room where he found two things sitting on his desk. He received a card from his mother, wishing him well, telling him how much she missed him, and wishing him a happy birthday. That didn’t surprise him. What surprised him was the box wrapped in fancy paper, waiting for him to open it. The note on the card only said “Happy birthday, Matt.” In place of a signature, the box was simply signed _Your Benefactor_. Opening the box. Matt found an atomic purple Game Boy Color and a few games. It looked well-loved, but it was a gift, and it was his own. Matt didn’t care enough to question why it had been sent to him (or why his benefactor, who had enough money to spend on this school, was sending him a game over twenty years old).

Pokemon Red was already in the system, so Matt turned it on and navigated through the first few screens. There was already a saved game. Matt almost turned off the system to reset the game, but stopped when he saw the name on the save file.

_Matt_ _…_

It seemed weird that his benefactor would have already started a game with his name on it. Matt loaded up the current save and started looking through it.

He’d never played the game before, but for one reason or another, it felt familiar. He clicked through the pokemon in his party first.

>Level 100 Charizard

>Level 100 Mewtwo

>Level 100 Dragonite

>Level 100 Vileplume

>Level 100 Gyarados

>Level 100 Zubat

All the highest level. All looking almost like old friends. The sensation was weird, and even if someone had been there to ask Matt to describe it, he didn’t think he’d have been able to.

Backing out of his party, he went to look through the Pokedex. It was 100% complete. Even knew to the game, Matt knew that wasn’t how this game was supposed to arrive.

At lights out, he turned off the game, having made his decision no to reset it that night. _Maybe tomorrow_ _…._

He would turn the game on the next day, and the day after that, and never would decide to reset it. For some reason, he just couldn’t bring himself to do that.

He sent a thank you note to his benefactor and mentioned that he hadn’t started a new game of Pokemon yet, but that he liked it. He included a picture he drew of Charizard and hoped it would be a good return gift.

~~~~~

The semester seemed to run faster after his birthday was over. Every month, he was tested, and every month, he moved up to higher level work. It barely occurred to him just how quickly he was being moved through curriculum. By the end of his first year, in June, he was three grades ahead of what he’d started the year at back in January. His standing at the school wasn’t even discussed in terms of grades. As soon as he’d mastered a class, he was moved into the next one. He later figured out that was the case for everyone. Skill levels were all over the place, with students simply being placed in classes based on what they could do. There were kids of all ages in each one of his classes, but even with that, Matt knew he was one of the younger ones.

Most of the kids didn’t talk about their parents, so Matt took their lead and never mentioned his mother. He continued to send her cards and letters, at holidays and when he had things to say. More and more though, she felt like some distant figure and less like his mother. He guessed it was just a side effect of not being able to talk about her much.

Otherwise, things continued to be as normal as they ever were at school. The same small classes, the same teachers, the same small groups of people who all seemed better at things than they should have been. It was so easy to get into a routine, something Matt hadn’t realized just how badly he needed it.

His normal summer break came and went. Classes continued during most of the summer, but there were two weeks designated for travel at the end of June. Matt’s mother couldn’t afford to visit him, and he was too young to travel home by train by himself, so he stayed at the school (with special permission to call his mother every day during the break).

When students returned things got back to normal. A full class schedule, his normal routine once again unbroken. Fall semester started as barely a blip, since most students moved in class in whatever month they tested high enough to do so. It wasn’t as though everyone was moving to a new year at the same time.

Still, at the beginning of fall, Matt received a letter from his benefactor—short, typed, with very little to make it personal. His benefactor assured him he would continue to pay for his schooling, asked him to do his best, and mentioned that he was pleased with his progress so far. He thanked him for the picture Matt had sent as well, telling him that it was on display in his office. (Matt had almost forgotten about the picture, but was happy to hear it had been well received.) There was no more information about why his benefactor was funding him of all people, beyond what he’d heard last year. Not that it really bothered him. He planned to do his best, then tucked the letter away and gradually forgot about it.

September and October and early November came and went with nothing out of the ordinary. In late November, Matt woke up one morning and opened the door of his room to see several people going by. The room next door (which had been vacant since Matt first arrived) was being cleaned and prepared for a new student. The student didn’t arrive the next day, or the day after that, and after a week, Matt quit paying attention.

On December 1st, someone moved into the room next door.


	2. New Kid

Matt watched for the new student as much as he could, but he had class that day and couldn’t go back to his room often. He guessed the new kid was busy with orientation, learning where things were and what classes they’d have to start with. It wasn’t until Matt got back to his room that evening that he got a chance to see who he’d be living next to.

The door was open just slightly, and Matt’s curiosity got the better of him. He tried to be quiet as he moved closer to the door, closing one eye to make it easier to focus on what he could see in the room.

The room looked not unlike his own. A bed, a desk, a window. He couldn’t see the new kid. Maybe he was on the side of the room that Matt couldn’t see. He reached up, knocking a little on the door (which pushed it open enough that he could stick his head in a little more, to see the whole room). Nobody.

“What do you want?”

Matt jumped, pulling his head out of the door frame, hitting it hard on the corner in the process. Setting a hand on his head, he turned and found who he assumed was his new neighbor standing in front of him, arms folded, looking very unhappy with the situation.

“Sorry…” Matt mumbled, blinking away stars in his eyes. “Just wanted to say hi,” he said, offering his other hand out to shake. Blinking again, he started to get a better look at the new kid. He assumed he was a boy, since he was on the boy’s side of the dorm. He was pretty though, in a way Matt normally would have assumed belonged to a girl. “What’s your name?”

The kid stared at his hand, looking skeptical. He didn’t reach for it, but he did reply.

“Mihael,” he said, and it was obvious that was as much introduction as he planned to give.

“I’m Matt.” He waited another moment for a handshake, then, deciding it probably wasn’t coming any time soon, dropped his hand.

“Were you snooping?” His accent was harsh, and Matt guessed his first language wasn’t English.

“No. Just wanted to see you. My room’s there,” he said, pointing at the next door. “I started in January. Nobody’s been in your room though, so…” he trailed off, well aware that he wasn’t saying anything interesting.

“Oh.” Mihael just stared at him, saying nothing, and Matt stared back. “Fine.” He waited a moment, then, when Matt didn’t move, stepped around him to push his door open the rest of the way. “Good night,” he said, before pushing Matt into the hallway and shutting the door.

Matt blinked, not sure what he’d expected. _Well, he’s new. Maybe he’s just tired from the trip here._ He’d been tired after the long day on the train, too, and Mihael might have come from further away. He’d try again tomorrow, he decided as he headed back to his room.

~~~~~

The next morning, Matt woke up early. As soon as he was dressed, he went to visit his new neighbor. He waited a few minutes, but didn’t hear anything. Getting close to the door, he put his ear against it. He still couldn’t hear anything inside, but maybe Mihael was just quiet? He was completely caught off guard when the door was pulled open, the small blond boy staring at him.

“Are you going to do this every single day?” he asked. Matt thought he could detect a hint of amusement buried in his obvious irritation.

“No,” Matt said, sounding more defensive than he meant to.

“Do you do this to different rooms every day?” Mihael asked, cocking his head to the side, his eyes bulging slightly (though Matt wasn’t sure if he could help that).

“No, just yours.” That didn’t sound better. “I mean, I was just going to ask if you wanted to go to breakfast.”

Mihael just stared at him, and Matt wondered if he should leave now before he made him angrier.

“Fine. Breakfast,” Mihael said, nodding once. “Let’s go. I’m hungry.” With that, he started down to the dining hall as if he’d been going there a lot longer than one day. Matt trailed behind him, still processing everything that had just happened.

They were the first ones there, and got their food before going to sit at a table. Mihael picked a table closer to the window than Matt would have chosen, but he decided not to argue. It was Mihael’s first day, after all, and Matt really wanted to make friends with him.

“So.” Matt slid into his seat and leaned forward on the table, staring at Mihael. He didn’t know where else to start, really, so he just kept staring, even as he realized just how long he’d been doing it for and how rude it probably looked.

“So what?” Mihael barked back, looking slightly on edge.

_Probably because you’re staring…_ Matt thought sheepishly to himself.

“What d’you like?” It was a dumb question and he knew it, but it was the best he had.

Mihael’s eyes narrowed slightly and he studied Matt, as thought he was trying to decide if he should be suspicious or not. He finally must have decided he wasn’t.

“I like school,” he said in that heavy accent of his. Matt didn’t know what it was about it, but he loved it.

“Well. Guess you’re in the right place,” he joked, waiting for a laugh. He didn’t get one.

“I guess,” Mihael said, shrugging.

_Not very talkative,_ Matt thought, cocking his head as he studied the boy. _That’s okay. He’s just new._ And with that, he pressed on.

“I like your hair.” People liked compliments, didn’t they?

Mihael reached up, his thumb and his forefinger closing around a few strands.

Matt shrugged. “It’s pretty.” It wasn’t just that it was pretty, but whatever else it was, Matt couldn’t quite put a finger on it. Either way, Mihael seemed alright with the answer. He nodded, then turned his attention to his food.

They ate for a while, with Matt occasionally making comments on the food, the teachers, the other kids, whatever popped into his head. Mihael looked up at him occasionally, the only acknowledgment of what Matt had said. It was enough acknowledgment for Matt though, who was very cheerful as they took their trays away. The dining hall had filled up since they got there, with the last few sleepy stragglers making their way inside as they left.

“I’m gonna get my stuff. D’you want to come? And I can show you where your classes are after that, if you want.”

Mihael nodded exactly once, then followed him back up to their rooms. They both went to get what they needed, then met up in the hall. Matt walked Mihael to his first class, then headed off to his own, pleased with how the morning had gone so far.

~~~~~

“Roger, what language does Mihael speak?” The old headmaster was surprised at the question, especially coming from a student who was supposed to be in class.

“Matt, what are you doing out here?” he asked, his voice gentle with age. At 80, he supposed he should have retired a long time ago.

“I saw you walk by the door, so I asked for a bathroom pass.” Matt held up the pass, grinning at how brilliant he’d been.

Roger sighed, deciding not to argue. “Mihael is from Russia,” he said with a soft sigh. He already knew what Matt was going to say next.

“Okay. I’m gonna learn Russian. Is that a class?”

“Yes, it is.” Roger knew that Matt would learn it with or without his help. “I’ll have you transferred to it in time for next week.”

Matt beamed. “Okay!” he chirped, turning to head back to his classroom.

Roger watched him bound off. The boy was entirely too familiar and it hurt his heart. It was impossible, of course, no matter what some might said. A coincidence. Nothing more. Still, he found himself with a soft spot for the boy, one that he kept to himself.

~~~~~

Matt was impatient, so he checked out books from the library and found a few websites to help, and started filling his evenings with learning Russian, Maybe Mihael would talk to him more if they didn’t have to just speak English. He hoped.

They had breakfast every morning that week, always at the same table. Matt tried to put a few Russian words into every conversation, hoping Mihael would like hearing words he was familiar with.

“Your accent sucks,” Mihael said on the third day. Matt just laughed.

“So does yours.”

Things started to improve once Matt was moved to the Russian class. It was a small group, and the teacher expected correct pronunciation and a strong accent. Between attending class and studying on his own, Matt could speak broken Russian by the end of the month.

In that time, Mihael’s English improved daily. His grasp of the language itself had been fine, but it started to sound more natural, and he no longer looked like he had to think hard about it every time he had a conversation.

By the end of the first month, Matt and Mihael were speaking in a broken mix of both languages, and Mihael was starting to talk more in general.

~~~~~

“Are you going home for Christmas?”

The question came from Matt, who was sitting on the floor of his bedroom, preoccupied with his Game Boy. Mihael was sitting across from him, head buried in his math book.

“No,” Mihael answered, his tone stiff. “Are you?”

Matt shook his head. “Can’t. Too far.” He shrugged.

Mihael nodded in agreement. “Too far.” He didn’t offer any more of an explanation, and Matt seemed satisfied with that for the moment. Ten minutes later, he piped up again.

“Do you miss home?” he asked, looking up from his game.

Mihael shrugged. “What’s there to miss?”

“I miss my mama sometimes,” Matt replied, shrugging back.

“My mom’s gone.”

“Oh.” Matt didn’t think it was a good idea to ask what Mihael meant by gone. “What about your dad?”

“He doesn’t care if I’m home or not,” Mihael replied, sounding completely unperturbed, as though it were simply a fact of life.

“Oh. Sorry…”

Mihael waved his hand at Matt. “It’s fine. Here is good, anyways.” He didn’t offer any more information and Matt decided it was best not to ask, at least right now.

“Well. We can spend Christmas together, okay?” Matt was excited at the prospect. Lots of kids went home, so things were usually quieter around holidays. He guessed more kids would go home for Christmas than for any of the holidays he’d been there for so far. Then again, plenty of kids usually stayed, too, and he was glad Mihael was one of them. “I bet it’ll be fun.”

Mihael shrugged, going back to his book. “I thought you were going to study, too,” he said after a minute, not looking up.

“Already did,” Matt said, eyes still on his game. “You wanna try?” he asked, offering it over.

“I don’t know how.”

“It’s easy.” Matt jumped up, throwing himself down next to Mihael, pushing the game into his hands. Normally, Mihael might have argued, but today he simply took the game, letting Matt tell him what to do. “Someday I’ll get a game we can both play. You’ll play with me then, yeah?”

“Sure.”

They played until lights out, then Mihael went back to his room. Matt was thrilled with the way the night had gone.

~~~~~

Christmas at the school was very quiet. Matt received a card from his mother and was allowed extra time to call her. She promised to bring Matt home for summer break, and talked about how she had a better job now. Matt told her all about school and Mihael, and about how well he was doing. Every time he talked to her, he could tell that she was happier knowing he was happy.

If Mihael got something from his family, he didn’t say anything, and Matt decided not to ask. What was there to gain from asking? If Mihael had received something, maybe he didn’t want to talk about it. If he hadn’t received anything, Matt asking would have just reminded him of that.

That wasn’t to say that Mihael didn’t get anything. On Christmas morning, he had a box not unlike the one that Matt had received from his benefactor. Both boxes were wrapped and heavy. Inside Matt’s, there was a new game, this time a whole system. Like at his birthday, was an old console, obviously well loved, but that didn’t bother Matt at all.

There were also a pair of tinted goggles, with a note that they were to keep Matt from ruining his eyes by playing too many games. The goggles were big on him, but otherwise they fit well, and more than that, he liked them.

Mihael’s box had a small television and a controller that went with the system Matt got.

“You think it’s a coincidence? Who sent it?” Matt asked excitedly, poring over both boxes.

Mihael shrugged. “No one.” Then he wrinkled his nose. “I don’t know.”

“Is there a card?” Matt asked.

Mihael nodded, handing it over. Matt scanned the words on it, then looked at his. It was definitely the same person.

“Look!” he said, pushing his own card into Mihael’s hands. “I don’t know who it is, but he pays for me to come here. Maybe he pays for you, too.” It was one more thing they had in common and Matt was thrilled.

Mihael looked at the two cards and knew Matt had to be right. For some reason, knowing that neither one of them could afford to go to school on their own made him relax a little.

“How’d he know we know each other?” Matt asked, reaching into Mihael’s box to get out the second controller.

“It’s not a big school,” Mihael said, as though it were obvious. Then again, Matt supposed it was. “He probably knows we have rooms next to each other.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Matt said, past the point of caring. “Come on, I wanna set it up, okay?”

Mihael didn’t argue, helping Matt move the TV and game system into his room, where they set everything up. The games were old, just like the Game Boy he got for his birthday, but he didn’t care. It was all new to him anyways.

What did surprise him was that, when they turned it on, there were already two save files. One that, just like the other games, had Matt’s name on it. The other had a different name.

“Mello.” Matt shrugged. “You wanna play that one? Or d’you wanna start a new one?”

Mihael took his controller and looked at the name on the screen for a long moment, then nodded. “I’ll play that one.” It wasn’t begrudging, either. Rather, he liked the look of the name, even though he wasn’t sure why.

~~~~~

They played their new games every day of winter break. Mihael’s competitive nature came out more and more every day, and by the end of the break, it was like he’d fully settled into the school. When the new term started in January, they found themselves in more classes together. Between eating together, going to class together, and spending evenings studying or playing together, they were inseparable.

Matt offered a few times for Mihael to make a new name on all the games, but after finding that “Mello” was a common name on all the multiplayer games, Mihael decided to adopt the moniker for himself. It felt comfortable for him, and that was all he could really say about it.

“It’s funny. Like marshmello,” Matt said one day.

“That’s not how you spell marshmallow,” Mihael retorted, and his tone made it clear that he didn’t want to hear his not-actual-name made fun of again. Matt didn’t argue with it.

~~~~~

“How come all the games have your name already?” Mihael asked, the day they started on the last one of the new-to-them games.

“I dunno,” Matt shrugged. “They all come that way. The ones on the Game Boy, too.”

“But why? It’s weird,” Mihael argued. “You think it’s the guy paying for our school?”

“Maybe...but why wouldn’t he just put your name on the other games then?”

“Maybe he can’t spell it.”

“That’s stupid.”

“Maybe he’s stupid,” Mihael laughed, obviously not that bothered by the issue.

“Maybe he’s not stupid,” Matt replied, shrugging. He couldn’t be that stupid, right? Mihael wasn’t hard to spell.

“Well, I don’t know why else he’d spell my name like that,” Mihael muttered, folding his arms over his chest.

“Matt’s a common name. The games were all used. Probably just a coincidence.” Neither of them said anything else about it, but neither of them looked especially convinced, either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2, up on time! I'd hoped to get it up in time for Matt's birthday yesterday, but didn't quite make it.
> 
> Thanks to everyone reading so far, and thanks for your comments and kudos. :D


	3. 2017

Their routine was the exact same every single morning. They met just outside their rooms to go to breakfast, ate together, returned for their things, then went to class. They met for lunch, back to class, then spent free time in one of their rooms or at the library until dinner. After dinner, Mihael usually studied, Matt studied or played something, and they only separated when it was time for bed. Weekends and breaks were similar, with class time replaced by more time in their rooms or spent outside.

This routine was consistent until an ice-cold morning in mid-January. Mihael woke up like always, dressed, and went outside their two rooms like he always did. Five minutes went by, then ten, with Mihael leaning impatiently against the wall directly opposite Matt’s room. After twenty minutes, he stepped forward and knocked as hard as he could on the door. Matt had probably stayed up too late…

Except after the knock, there was no response. No sound. No indication that Matt was even in the room. Mihael’s first thought was that Matt had gone down to breakfast without him and he was furious. As he stomped down the stairs, he considered that Matt had never once gone to breakfast without him. Surely he wouldn’t just start now? There had to be a good reason. That calmed him down a little as he headed the rest of the way and poked his head into the dining hall. No Matt. Now he was starting to worry.

He turned around to head back upstairs, planning to try to open Matt’s door, in case he’d just been sleeping too hard to hear him knock. As he turned, he ran smack into Roger. How the old man had snuck up behind him, he had no idea.

“Good morning, Mihael.” The name always sounded like Roger wasn’t sure how to say it and it annoyed the boy, but there wasn’t much he could really do about it. “Is something wrong?”

“Matt’s not in his room, and he’s not down here,” he said, his concern coming out as irritation.

“He was ill last night, so he’s in the infirmary,” Roger said. “It’s nothing serious, so there’s no need to worry.” He set a hand on Mihael’s shoulder, gently nudging him back toward the dining hall. “You should eat.”

Mihael wiggled under the hand, and Roger pulled it away. “Have to check on Matt first,” he said, looking at Roger with a furious sort of intensity that didn’t surprise Roger as much as it should have.

The old man sighed, then gently said, “I’m sure Matt will appreciate that.” That was enough of a blessing for Mihael, who turned for the hall without saying anything else.

He’d only been in the infirmary once, shortly after arriving, and it hadn’t been for long. Not that it was hard for him to find. He pushed the door open slowly, not wanting to get in trouble for waking anyone up. The soft sunlight poured in through the windows, contrasting the strong, sterile smell of disinfectant.

Matt was easy to spot, his red hair poking up from under the covers of one of the beds. Mihael went straight to the bed and was greeted by the sound of Matt snoring softly. He didn’t look very sick. Maybe a little more pale than usual.

The nurse on duty saw Mihael and hurried over. “You should be at breakfast,” she admonished softly, keeping her voice quiet.

“Roger said I could visit,” he said back, looking up at her with determination.

“And will Roger say that, if I talk to him?” she asked, raising an eye skeptically.

“Yes.” And it wasn’t particularly clear if it was a lie or not.

Since Matt didn’t have anything especially terrible, the nurse sighed and directed the boy to a chair near the bed.

“You can sit there and wait for him to wake up,” she said, sounding more resigned than anything.

Mihael stared at her as he sat down, as though daring her to tell him to be quiet. She didn’t say anything, instead going back to what she’d been doing before the interruption.

Mihael sat in the chair that was a little too big for him, staring at Matt. He waited until the nurse was out of sight (and earshot, he hoped) before leaning forward and poking Matt’s shoulder with the very tip of his pointer finger. Matt wiggled and frowned, then opened one sleepy eye. As soon as he saw Mihael, he moved, brightening a little.

“Hey, Matt,” Mihael said, his face softening a little at the way Matt looked at him. “You doing okay?”

“Yeah. Just was sick last night,” Matt said, sitting up a little in his bed. “I threw up.”

“Fun.”

“Not really…”

“I was joking,” Mihael replied, smiling sideways at Matt.

“Oh. Ohhhh. Okay. It was funny.” Matt leaned back into his pillow again. “I feel better, but they said I have to stay here today,” he said, wrinkling his nose.

“Do you need a game?”

Matt looked like he was considering it for a brief moment, then nodded. “Yeah.”

“I’ll bring you one on my way to class, okay?”

“Okay!” Matt chirped, settling back into his bed.

Mihael nodded as he stood up. “You get better, so you can have breakfast with me tomorrow,” he said, and it almost sounded like he wasn’t giving Matt a choice. Matt didn’t seem bothered by the tone at all.

~~~~~

Matt’s second birthday since coming to the school came with similar fanfare. A small cake and party with his main class. Mihael was there, having transferred into the level at the beginning of the year.

“How old are you?” Mihael demanded, as though it was important information that Matt had been keeping from him.

“Eight.” It didn’t seem that important.

“I’m eight,” Mihael said, looking satisfied with the answer.

“When’s your birthday?”

“December.”

Matt’s face fell a little. “Oh. I missed it.”

“We weren’t in the same class yet,” Mihael replied, looking unconcerned.

“Well, I won’t miss it this year,” Matt said, and since that seemed to satisfy him, Mihael didn’t say anything else.

Matt’s birthday came with his usual card from his mother and with a gift from his benefactor. Clothes, this time, with a note saying that he’d heard Matt was growing.

Matt pulled new blue jeans out first, followed by three shirts with different colored stripes.

“Cool!” he said, looking thrilled as he held a shirt up to himself and looked in the mirror.

“Well, are you going to try them on?” Mihael asked, perched on Matt’s bed.

“Yeah,” Matt said, and he proceeded to strip down and change right there. Mihael almost said something, but reminded himself it was Matt’s room, not his. If Matt wanted to change, there wasn’t much he could do about it, was there?

The clothes were all a little big, but that left room to grow. Matt turned to face Mihael, and held his arms out, letting him get a good look.

“Well? What d’you think?” he asked, beaming.

“They’re cute,” Mihael replied. _You’re cute_ , he clarified to himself, although he stopped himself before he said it out loud.

“Yeah? Good. I’m gonna wear them tomorrow,” Matt said, moving to change back into his pajamas. This time, Mihael looked away, and even as he did, he wasn’t sure why.

Mihael stayed in Matt’s room a few minutes past curfew that night. “Since it’s a special occasion,” he said, as they turned the lights down and blocked the TV screen so that nobody could see it from under the door, if they did inspections. Sitting by the bed, in the dark, Matt leaned on Mihael as they played, and thought to himself that it was the best birthday he’d had before.

~~~~~

The weather gifted them with a few nice days in early April. Mihael was thrilled. Matt was less thrilled, but joined him outside since it made him happy. A few of the other kids joined in to play a game, and it was the most fun Matt could ever remember having outside. At one point, he ended up on a separate team from Mihael.

“I’m not going easy just because we’re friends,” Mihael said as the two teams separated.

Matt didn’t expect him to, and stuck his tongue out as he ended up on his own side.

The game was rough, with none of the kids pulling any punches. Mihael was extremely competitive (more so than Matt had realized before, but he decided to just keep up). Halfway through the game, Matt had the ball, and Mihael, not one to lose at anything, tackled him to get it away.

The two boys slammed into the ground, Mihael’s arms wrapping around Matt in an effort to keep him from getting the ball back.

“Mihael….!” Matt whined, squirming to try and get away from him.

“I told you, I don’t go easy on friends,” Mihael replied, half taunting Matt.

“That’s not fair though,” Matt protested.

Mihael stayed on top of Matt until the point was scored, but didn’t immediately get up.

“Say please,” he said, staring down at Matt.

“Please.”

“Please what?”

“You know what!” Matt whined again, trying to push Mihael off. “Fine, please let me up!”

“Okay.” Mihael rolled off of him, pleased with himself.

Mihael’s team won without a doubt, and he didn’t end up with another chance to tackle Matt. Tackling the other kids wasn’t quite as much fun, he decided. Then again, winning was fun, so he didn’t argue with any of it too much.

They all went back inside, covered in dirt and grass stains, scrapes and a few torn knees in their pants.

“Well? Was it fun?” Mihael asked, pulling his jacket off as soon as they got inside.

“Yeah. I wanna be on your team next time,” Matt said, wrinkling his nose.

“Fine, you can be on my team next time, okay? I’ll tell them we won’t play otherwise.” Matt looked happy at the prospect, and that carried through as he changed into clean clothes and headed down to dinner with Mihael.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter this week, but next week should be another long one. Thank you again for reading!


	4. Home

Mihael leaned against Matt’s door frame, watching him pack his last few things. “You’ll call me when you get there, right?”

“Yeah, soon as I can. It’s a train, mate, you don’t have to worry,” Matt said as he zipped his bag. “If you forgot anything in here, use the key, yeah?” He pressed his room key into Mihael’s hand. Easier than taking it with him, anyways.

“I didn’t, but thanks. Need any help with your shit?”

“Nah, not that much,” Matt shrugged. “You can walk me down though. I’ll even let you carry my bag down the stairs, if you want,” he teased as he pulled his door closed. He could tell that Mihael was more upset about him leaving than he was willing to let on. If he didn’t know it would be a blow to his ego, Matt would’ve said something. “Come on.” He headed down the hall, down the stairs, and to the front door, with Mihael behind him, watching his bag bounce down the stairs behind him.

They waited at the front door for the car that was taking Matt to the train station in town.

“It’s only a couple weeks,” Matt said, turning to Mihael. “If you keep studying, you’ll probably beat me at calc by the time I get back,” he added with a small laugh.

“Ha. Maybe,” Mihael said. He knew it wasn’t fair. Matt didn’t get to go home very often, and it was never for that long, when he did. Summer break was his best chance, since the weather was nice and he didn’t have to worry about getting stuck somewhere on the train. Still, something about having Matt gone was hard, more than it should’ve been, and he didn’t like it. “There’s your car. You should go, before it leaves without you,” he said, trying to shake off the feeling that he didn’t want Matt to go.

“Yeah. I’ll let you know when I get there.” Matt hesitated, then patted Mihael’s shoulder. “I’ll text.” And with that, he pulled the door open and headed out. Once he was in the car with his bag, he turned to look up at the huge building he’d called home for over six years now. When he saw that Mihael was still watching him from the doorway, he waved at him a little, and didn’t look away until the car was far enough away that he was out of sight.

He wondered if Mihael felt the same weird, sinking feeling in his gut that he did right now. It always happened when he went home, but this time it felt worse, for some reason that he couldn’t put his finger on. Normally, he’d have just attributed it to nerves, or to not sleeping well the night before, or to the fact that this school really was home now and that leaving it felt strange. None of that quite made sense though.

He’d just boarded his train when he realized why. It didn’t even begin to compare to how he felt when he left his mother to go back to school, not even the first time he did it, over half his life ago. That should’ve been worse, right? Maybe Mihael was just that big a part of his life.

Matt dug out his game when the train started to move and settled in for the long ride home. The whole time he played, his mind was preoccupied, thinking of the expression on Mihael’s face when he’d left.

~~~~~

Mihael went back upstairs as soon as Matt was gone to get ready for class. Even in the summer, there were optional study sessions, and he felt like beating Matt at calc when he got back (since Matt had basically dared him to). He didn’t feel like having breakfast, so he skipped it, figuring he’d see if he was hungrier at lunch.

As he changed, he realized how quiet it was. Matt usually made some noise in the morning when he changed, and his dresser was on the wall that he shared with Mihael, so he could hear every single time he opened and closed it. Without him in there, it was almost too quiet. Mihael finished dressing as fast as he could (making as much noise as he could, without drawing too much attention), and left to get to his classroom. He knew he’d be early, but that just meant more time for him to sit and study. Besides, it was better than being in his too quiet room.

~~~~~

Matt’s train made good time, and he was home in time for dinner. His mother was thrilled.

The first thing that struck Matt was how much better his mother looked. Even as young as he’d been when he left home for school, he knew he’d been a burden. She didn’t have to work as hard with him gone, and it definitely showed. As much as he’d missed her, it had been best for both of them, and he knew it.

“I told Mihael I’d call when I got here,” he said after dropping his stuff in his room. He borrowed the phone and called the main number, then waited for someone to get Mihael. (He couldn’t wait to be 15, when they’d both be allowed to have their own phones.)

“Yeah, hi, it’s Matt. Just got home. Can you get Mihael? Told him I’d call when I got here. He’s probably in the dining hall.”

“I’ll have him call you in a few minutes. Is that alright?”

“Yeah, thanks.” Matt hung up and waited by the phone. He’d have rather stayed on the line, but this was probably easier than leaving the phone off the hook while they got Mihael. (Besides, it meant the school had to pick up the charges.)

Matt jumped when the phone rang loudly in his ear, and picked it up before it had a chance to ring again.

“Matt? Is that you?” Mihael jumped on before Matt had a chance to answer.

“Yeah, just got here.”

“Fucking finally.” Matt heard him being told off for swearing. “You were on the train that whole time?”

“Yeah, it’s a long trip.”

“Sucks to be you,” Mihael teased, and Matt could almost see the smile that was probably on his face. “Did it go okay?”

“Yeah, went fine. Had the bench to myself, so that was nice. What’d you do all day?”

“Studied for calc, since you said I should try to beat you.”

Matt laughed, leaning against the wall.

“I’ve gotta go eat, but I didn’t want you worrying like an old lady over me,” he said. “You should go finish eating too, yeah?”

“Yeah, fine. I’ll call you this weekend,” Mihael said, not keeping his sigh entirely to himself. “Have fun with your mom, okay?” The sentiment was genuine, even if he hated having Matt away.

“I will. I’ll bring you a souvenir, too.”

“Nothing too stupid, okay?”

“Sure thing, mate,” Matt laughed. He felt better, getting to talk to Mihael. Especially since he sounded like he was doing alright. “Talk t’you soon.”

“Bye.”

Mihael hung up first, probably because whoever was watching the phone was breathing down his neck. Matt was already looking forward to talking to him that weekend.

~~~~~

Dinner went well. Matt and his mom had a lot to talk about, since it had been so long since the last time they saw each other in person. Since then, Matt’s mom had found a better job and was making a little more money. Matt had moved up at least two years in school (as much as he could tell, at least, with how odd the organization of his classes was). He realized just how hungry he was from the trip when the food was finally ready, and finished his meal in record time.

Their place felt familiar, still like home, even if it wasn’t the same way that the school felt like home.

“How’s Mihael doing?” his mom asked as they settled down in the living room for the night.

“He’s fine. He was having dinner when I called.”

“Is he going home for a visit any time soon?”

“Nah, he never goes home. Never really calls, either.” Matt gave his mom a look, trying to tell her that Mihael’s home life wasn’t great without having to say it out loud. She took the hint and nodded.

“The next time you come home, bring him, if you’d like to. If it’s allowed up at that school of yours.” It was a strange school, and even in all the years that Matt had been going there, his mother still couldn’t understand what it was about. Of course, she understood the curriculum was strenuous, paced for the student rather than the student being expected to fit into their year. Originally, she’d assumed Matt was unusual, for being privately funded. The longer he was there though, and the more she heard about Mihael, the more she wondered if most of the children there didn’t have wealthy donors paying for their tuition and living expenses. She’d never once been asked to pay for anything related to the school. Even with tuition waivers, there were usually supplies and uniform fees and other bits and pieces, but in the seven years that Matt had been attending, she hadn’t been asked for so much as a cent.

“Yeah?” Matt asked, looking thrilled at the prospect. “I’ll bring him. You’ll like him. He’s nice.” Nice wasn’t the best word to describe him, he supposed, but he couldn't think of anything he liked better off the top of his head. “And he’s really smart. We’re in a lot of the same classes this year. He works really hard to be the top of every class he’s in.”

Mrs. Jeevas listened to the way her son talked about his friend. He seemed enamored with him, as had been the case any time she asked about Mihael. She’d never met the boy, hadn’t ever even talked to him, but by now, he and Matt had been friends for several years, so the interest was far from fleeting. She hoped Matt would bring him home with him someday, so she could meet the boy that had been Matt’s closest friend since he left for school.

She was happy that Matt had someone to be close to. When he’d first left for school, she worried about him being lonely, about him having trouble making friends and fitting in. Mihael had helped alleviate those worries, and her only worry now was that someday Mihael might stop being friends with her son. There was nothing she could do to control that though, so she tried not to worry about it more than she could help.

She and Matt stayed up later than either of them were normally up, drinking tea, talking about their lives, about everything that had happened to both of them since they’d last seen each other. Mrs. Jeevas was thankful for the fact that Matt didn’t seem to resent being sent away, and for how comfortably he still fit into home, when he was able to come back. (All of that had gotten much easier, once Matt was old enough to take the train on his own.) He wrote her letters regularly, and called her as often as he could, and now he visited as much as possible. She’d worried about losing her relationship with her son when he moved away, but visits like this made her all the more thankful that that hadn’t been the case.

It was well after midnight when they separated to go to bed. Mrs. Jeevas had a few days off to spend just with Matt, before she had to go back to work, so there was no sense in staying up all night when they’d be able to continue talking in the morning.

Matt felt fine as long as he’d been up with his mom, but when he got into bed and pulled the covers up, he realized just how quiet it was without Mihael next door. Mihael’s bed was on the wall they shared, and he had a fun habit of kicking the wall in his sleep. Sometimes it was annoying, but it always let Matt know he was there. Without that, he felt lonely, and was already looking forward to the promised phone call that weekend.

~~~~~

That same sense of relief settled over Matt when Mihael called that weekend. They talked for two hours (far longer than their usually allotted time--Matt suspected that Mihael had been given extra time, whether he’d asked for it or not), and it still didn’t feel like enough.

“I’ll talk to you in a couple days,” Mihael said, sounding like he felt the same way.

“Yeah, okay. Couple days. You know when I’m at home. And I”ll call back if you miss me.”

“Don’t make a new friend that you like better than me while you’re there.” Matt caught the faintest hint of seriousness in Mihael’s voice. He didn’t say anything about it.

They said their goodbyes and Matt hung up, sighing a little. He didn’t know his mother was around the corner and had heard enough to know that Matt was homesick for Mihael.

She didn’t bring it up when Matt joined her in the kitchen, or when they ate dinner, or when they sat down for the evening. She didn’t intend to bring it up at all. For one, she tried to give her son his privacy when he was home. For another, what good would it do? It would make Matt feel bad for letting her hear that, nothing more. She knew it was her fault for not seeing him more often. Then again, if he was happy at school, surely that wasn’t a bad thing? At the heart of it all, she wanted to see her son happy.

~~~~~

The next few days went by with nothing out of the ordinary happening. Matt’s mother returned to work, so he entertained himself for the most part, enjoying his break from school. Mihael called as often as he could talk Roger into letting him use the phone, always during the day, when Matt was home alone.

Matt had started to look forward to those calls, his chest aching a little whenever he had to hang up for the day. It was starting to scare him a little. It couldn’t be normal to miss someone like that, right? Not when he hadn’t even missed his own mother like that. Mihael was his best friend, sure, but most people didn’t see their best friends all the time, right? So why did it hurt to be away right now?

He tried not to think about any of it more than he could help. On that particular day, after the call, Matt went for a very unusual (for him) walk, a long walk, up and down streets he hadn’t walked down in years, not since he’d left home for school. He’d hoped the sun and the physical activity might help. In the end, all it did was make him tired and hot, and when he returned just in time to greet his mom as she came home from work, he didn’t feel any better.

Having his mom home did help, so he started telling himself he just got lonely, when he was by himself. With that in mind, he made the decision to go out the next day, after his mom left for work, to find somewhere busy where he could kill some time with other people around.

With all of that in mind as he laid down later that night to go to bed, he fell asleep easier than he had since he got home.

~~~~~

_Matt was back at school, and it looked exactly the same as it always had. He sat in the dining hall, facing the door, waiting. Waiting for what…_

_That’s it. Mello wasn’t there yet. He wasn’t going to get food until Mello showed up. They always ate together._

_He could feel time moving, saw other children come and go, and Mello never appeared._

_He stood up and left the dining hall, going upstairs to his room. He opened the door and stepped inside, looking for someone. Nobody was there. Of course nobody was there. He left the room and went to the next door, watched his hand raise, watched his fingers curl into a fist, watched that fist rap on the door one, two, three, four, five times, listened for any sort of movement, waited, waited, waited, waited, waited, nothing._

_His hand dropped, fingers clasping the brass handle. It turned easily, the room unlocked. He let himself in. A clap of thunder scared him at almost the same time that a flash of lightning illuminated the empty room._

_Empty. Drawers half open with things missing, books gone, desk empty._

_The bed._

_He stepped toward it, watched his hand reach for a note on the bed, fingers trembling as he picked it up. That same familiar ache filled his chest. His eyes scanned the note, eyes hovering over a single line._

_“Don’t look for me.”_

_The signature was an M, nothing more._

_Matt’s eyes blurred and he couldn’t read anything else. He stayed there, letter in hand, rain hitting the window, everything in his vision little more than a glassy mosaic in his wet eyes._

~~~~~

Matt woke up, heart pounding so hard that it hurt. He was disoriented, scared, and had no idea where he was. It wasn’t familiar, nothing was familiar.

A nightmare.

That’s all it had been.

Matt sat up and leaned forward, his face in his hands. He couldn’t tell where the sweat ended and the tears began. As he sat there in silence, he realized his hands were still trembling.

A loud clap of thunder caught him off guard, pushing him back into his nightmare, back to the all too similar thunder that scared him there, too.

You’re just at home. Everything’s fine. Calm down, dumbass.

As he sat there in his bed, he started trying to piece everything together. He’d been back at school, waiting for Mihael.

No...not Mihael…

He racked his brain, trying to remember the name. It took him a moment before it came to him.

Mello…

He’d seen it before.

Where though?

It hit him. The name in his video game. All those extra profiles with that name.

He’d been looking for Mello, first in his own room, then in Mihael’s room. He’d opened the door, but nobody was there. More than that, it looked like several things were missing.

The letter.

Matt had found that letter on the bed. He couldn’t remember everything on it, only the last line.

Don’t look for me.

_Why not?_

Matt lifted his face from his hands, eyes sore like he’d been crying. He supposed he had been, in his sleep if nothing else.

_Who’s Mello?_

That question rang in his head as he got out of bed, going to get his Game Boy off of his desk. He was on autopilot as he turned it on, going through the Tetris cartridge he’d last played. The first name was Matt.

The second name was Mello. The save that Mihael always played on.

Matt sat back down on his bed, game still in his hands. If he’d been back at school, he’d have gone to Mihael’s room, and he guessed Mihael would have let him in (even if he was grumpy at being woken up). He couldn’t think of anywhere he wanted to be more than Mihael’s room at that moment.

But Mihael was nearly ten hours away, probably asleep, and he couldn’t contact him, much less go to his room. Matt shut the game off and set it on the side table, then reached up to rub his eyes again. He didn’t know how he was going to sleep, but his clock said it was three in the morning, which didn’t give him much choice.

He got up and headed for the bathroom as quietly as he could. With the door closed, he splashed water on his face, looking at himself in the mirror for several seconds.

_Shit, I look terrible._

Mihael would have said the same thing, which made Matt smile a little. Cooled off, he went back to his room and laid back down, drawing the covers up. He closed his eyes, willing himself to go to sleep. It took a while, but eventually he managed it. Mihael’s face was at the front of his mind, even when he finally fell asleep. He didn’t have another nightmare, but he didn’t sleep as comfortably as he’d have liked to, either. He wouldn’t sleep comfortably again until he got back to school, back to Mihael.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to everyone for reading! A longer chapter this time, and some things are starting to move in it. :)


	5. Return

“Matt, are you alright?”

His mother looked concerned as she stared at him. He looked like he’d barely slept. She thought she’d heard him up the previous night, but had ultimately decided it was in her imagination and gone back to sleep.

“Yeah, ‘m fine,” Matt said, barely looking at her as he bit into his toast. “Just couldn’t sleep. Storm.” He shrugged.

“Oh, I see,” his mother said, sounding relieved. “It woke me up, too.” She finished her breakfast, then stood up to get ready for work. “You should try to take a nap, if you can,” she suggested.

“I will, if I can,” Matt said, getting up to walk her to the door.

His mother hugged and kissed him, told him to have a good day, and gave him one more concerned look before leaving. Matt exhaled heavily once the door was closed, relaxing a little. She’d given him that look too many times that day already, and he was determined to look better by the time she got home.

He took a shower, standing under the water longer than he normally did. The water finally started to go cold, and if it weren’t for the fact that it reminded him of the rain in his dream, he probably wouldn’t have gotten out then.

Shivering as he dried off, he caught sight of himself in the mirror. He didn’t feel like he looked much better than he had the night before.

Great…

He dressed and checked the clock. Breakfast was still probably going on, and study sessions wouldn’t start again for another half hour or so, so he decided to call Mihael.

“Hey, it’s Matt. Can you get Mihael for me? Just for a few minutes.”

“Matt…” he could hear the discontented sigh from the woman on the other end.

“Won’t be for long, I promise.” Matt paused, then added, “It’s important.”

There was a moment of hesitation before the woman spoke again. “I’ll have him call you back in a few minutes,” she said, sounding resigned.

Matt nodded, before remembering she couldn’t see him.

“Yeah, thanks…” he said softly, hanging up the phone only when he heard it click on the other end.

He sat by the phone for what felt like forever, waiting for it to ring. When it finally did, he picked it up barely halfway into the first ring.

“Mihael?”

“Fuck, Matt. You sound like you just ran a marathon.”

Matt exhaled, relieved, having not even realized that he was holding his breath until that moment. Mihael’s voice grounded him, and he realized that he’d been afraid to find out that Mihael was gone when he called, like he had been in his dream.

“Yeah, no, sorry, mate. I’m fine. Just ran to get the phone.”

“No shit. You answered it faster than you usually move.” Mihael laughed on the other end and Matt didn’t even care that he was making fun of him. “Well? What was so urgent that you called in the middle of breakfast?”

“What...oh, nothing, really.”

“Nothing?” Mihael sounded more skeptical than anything. “Are you serious?”

“No. I mean, well, not nothing. But...I dunno. It’s stupid.” Calling was starting to seem like a really dumb idea, now that Mihael was asking questions. Matt realized he didn’t have a good answer that wouldn’t make him sound crazy.

“It’s probably not that stupid. Try me.”

“I just... I dunno. There was a big storm here last night, and I didn’t sleep well, and I had a...weird dream, that’s all.”

“You got scared of a dream?” Matt half expected Mihael to make fun of him. “Fine, what happened?”

“I dunno. I guess I was back there, and you were gone, and I didn’t know where you were. That’s all. Just...guess I needed to know you were okay.”

Mihael didn’t speak for several seconds, and when he did, his voice was more gentle than Matt had expected.

“I’m okay, Matt. I miss you, but that’s it.” Mihael paused, and the weight of it settled over Matt. “Sounds like it was just a nightmare.”

“Yeah, that’s all. I just…”

“Just what?”

“I dunno. But I feel better. Maybe I just needed to know for sure that’s all it was.”

“It’s not like you just became psychic,” Mihael laughed. “I need to get ready for my study session, and I’m being told to wrap it up.” Matt could almost see Mihael sticking his tongue out at the woman in charge of the phone. “I’ll call you in a couple days though.

“Yeah, no, that’s fine.” Matt sounded relieved. “Thanks. For calling me back.”

“Sure, Matt. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Thanks, Mihael.”

The phone clicked off, and while Matt did feel better about the dream, he could still feel that same loneliness settling into his chest, just as it always did when he got off the phone.

He decided to follow through on his original plan, to leave the house for a while and see if that helped. He headed out and walked for a while before finding a coffee shop. He bought a drink and found a seat where he could sit with his Game Boy, undisturbed, but with the bustling background noise of people that kept him from feeling completely isolated.

It helped, but not nearly as much as he’d hoped for. If he only felt comfortable when his mom was home, the next week and a half were going to be really long. He didn’t suppose there was anything he could do about that though, besides bearing with it.

~~~~~

Every day after his mom left for work, Matt went out of his way to find something distracting today. Most days, he went out, but today, he decided to stay home and write a letter to his benefactor. For one, he hadn’t done that in a while. For another, he couldn’t get over the feeling that his benefactor might know whose names were on every single one of his games. He knew for sure that he’d been looking for Mello--not Mihael--in his dream, and if he could just find out who Mihael was, he suspected that might make him feel better.

He wrote out all the different games that had that name on them, and asked if his benefactor knew where it came from. Mello was hardly a common name like Matt, after all.

There was probably a reasonable expectation. His benefactor had probably bought every single game at the same place. They were old games, so it was probably a set, and the set had probably just belonged to someone named Matt, who thought it was funny to have a second profile with a stupid, made up name. That had to be it. Then again, it was entirely possible his benefactor wouldn’t say anything about it the next time he wrote. Matt supposed that, if that happened, he’d be disappointed, but that would be it. He couldn’t make him respond.

Maybe he wouldn’t even care anymore, once he got back to school, to Mihael and his sleep kicking and everything else. Once he was back to his normal routine and his normal people, the situation might solve itself. He hoped it would.

~~~~~

On his second to last night at home, his mom sat down with him, looking more serious than she typically did after dinner.

“Matt, honey...are you alright?”

“Sure, Mama, why wouldn’t I be?”

She gave him that look that told him she knew more than she’d been letting on. “Matt, you’ve barely slept the last week. I know you’ve been waking up at night, and you’ve looked more tired every day.”

Matt opened his mouth to say something, but it only hung open for a moment before he closed it. What was there to say? She was right. As much as he didn’t want to say it, she was right.

“Matt, I just want to know if you’re alright. If there’s a reason for it, tell me, please?” She set a hand on his, squeezing his fingers a little.

“Mama, I…” Matt hesitated, trying to decide what to say. “I don’t know, honest. Just haven’t slept well. Bad dreams,” he said, shrugging a little.

“Do you have those all the time?” his mother asked, frowning a little.

“Not always. Didn’t have them when I first got back here, either. Don’t know why it’s happening.” Since that first night, he’d had several more dreams, similar to that first one in almost every way, right down to just how real it always felt. But how could he explain that without sounding crazy?

His mother stared at him for a long moment, as though she were trying to decide if he was being honest or not. In the end, she decided he seemed like he was, and there wasn’t much else to say beyond that.

“You know you can always talk to me, don’t you? If you’re not here, you can call me, or write me, about anything you want.” She knew Matt knew that. That didn’t stop her insecurities over not seeing her son as often as she wanted to from slipping into the conversation.

“I know, Mama,” Matt said, turning his hand to squeeze hers. He tried to remember when his hand had gotten bigger than hers, but he supposed it had happened while he was away. “I promise, I’ll talk to you. Just...don’t have anything to talk about right now. It’s just bad dreams. Probably ate something weird.”

They both knew that wasn’t the case, that Matt, for one, hadn’t eaten anything unusual the entire time he’d been home, and for another, had a stomach that might as well have been made out of steel.

His mother finally nodded, then dropped the subject, and hoped that it would end before he went back to school, if only so she could know her son was getting enough sleep.

~~~~~

The morning Matt left, his mother took him to the train station and stayed with him until he was able to board. She hugged and kissed him for as long as she could without making him late, and made no attempt to stop her.

His sleep had been a little better last night, but he could tell she was still worried.

“I’ll call when I get there, promise. And I’ll talk to you, okay?” He hoped to reassure her, after their conversation the other night. Even if she hadn’t told him explicitly, he knew she worried that he felt like he couldn’t talk to her, given how little time they’d been able to spend together since he started school. “I promise.”

It seemed to be enough for the moment, because she just reinforced it (“call me whenever you need to, even if it’s the middle of the night”) before hugging him one last time and sending him up onto his train. He found a seat where he could wave to her, and kept watching her until his train had rolled out of the station.

As hard as it always was to say goodbye to her, he felt an intense sense of relief settle over him once the train began to pick up speed. He’d get back to school, and he’d see Mihael, and he’d start to feel more normal soon, by that night, assuming nothing unusual happened with the train.

~~~~~

“Took you long enough.” Mihael had been waiting with his bedroom door open, so that he could hear Matt when he got back.

“Yeah, I made sure I took the slowest possible train. Read the Yelp reviews and everything,” Matt said, rolling his eyes. As much as he teased, he hadn’t felt this comfortable in over a week (and a part of him felt guilty for that, for feeling more comfortable at school than at home).

“Bullshit you did,” Mihael snorted, following Matt into his room. Matt could tell Mihael was relieved to have him home, too, in his own way. “How was your mom?”

“She’s good. She was glad to have me home.” Matt threw his back in the corner and let himself fall backwards onto his bed, his back cracking from the impact. “Said you can come with me, next time.”

“Really? Does she know what she’s offering?”

“Of course she knows. Didn’t like that you don’t get to go home ever,” Matt said, leaning up just enough to be able to see Mihael.

Mihael sat down on Matt’s bed, leaning over him, leering down.

“God, you look like shit. What happened?”

“Nothing.” Matt wrinkled his nose.

“So you just naturally have dark circles under your eyes?” Mihael reached up to poke Matt’s undereye, but Matt knocked his hand away instinctively.

“Just slept bad, that’s all.”

“What, the whole time you were there?” Mihael scoffed.

“Just the last week,” Matt said, sitting up on the bed.

Mihael’s expression turned to concern. “Really? What happened?”

“Nothing happened, just had a nightmare, that’s all.”

“Every night?”

“Well...yeah.”

“That’s not normal,” Mihael said. Now he looked really concerned, worried even. Matt couldn’t remember ever seeing him look at him like that.

“Just not used to being home, y’know? That’s all. I’ll sleep better back here.” Matt patted the bed. “Used to it, y’know?”

Mihael didn’t look convinced. “Fine, but if you still look like that in a couple days, I’m making you go see the nurse.”

Shit...do I really look that bad?

Matt told himself that he’d examine his face in a mirror when he got ready for bed later.

“How was stuff here?” he asked, sliding off the bed and pulling his suitcase over to unzip it.

Mihael shrugged. “You know. The usual. Except I’m going to beat you in calc,” he said, a scary grin on his face.

“You can try,” Matt retorted, pulling a big plastic bag out of his suitcase and throwing it at Mihael. “Chocolate cookies. Mum told me to bring them back for you, but if you’re just going to beat me at calc, maybe I’ll take them back.”

“I already have them. You can’t take them back,” Mihael said, hugging the crinkling bag to his chest. Matt told himself to make sure to tell his mom that Mihael liked the cookies.

“I said I’d call her when I got back, so I’m gonna go do that,” he said, standing up.

“Tell her these’re great,” Mihael said, his voice muffled by the half cookie he’d already stuffed in his mouth.

Matt headed back to the office and asked for the phone. He got it without much hassle and called home.

He could still hear the concern from that morning in his mother’s voice, but didn’t bring it up, focusing on assuring her that he was going to sleep early, that his trip back had been good, and that Mihael had loved the cookies.

“Love you, Mama. I’ll call you in a few days, okay?” He hoped that promise would make her worry less about his sleep.

With the call over, he headed back to his room, where Mihael was still lounging on his bed. He stayed in his room while Matt unpacked as much as he needed to for the night, regaling him with all the gossip from the two weeks he missed at school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Absolutely meant to have this up on Sunday, but so it goes. I should have the next chapter up next Sunday, so a shorter wait, if nothing else? Thanks again for reading!


	6. Research

Matt couldn’t remember when he woke up, only that, when he did, someone else was in his bed, arms wrapped around him as though they were trying to keep him from falling to pieces. That dream again...Mello, whoever that was, was gone, and he was distressed, to say the least.

“Matt?” He heard his voice come out in a worried whisper. “You awake?”

"Yeah…’m awake.” Matt’s voice sounded like he’d been crying, and it caught him by surprise. “Wha’ happened…”

“You woke me up. Heard you in here, so I came in to check on you, that’s all,” Mihael’s voice was unbelievably soft, so much softer than it as during the day. He was really worried… And for some reason that Matt couldn’t put his finger on, that realization made him happy. No...happy was the wrong word...but he couldn’t think of another one. All he knew was that he liked that Mihael was in here, fussing over him, holding him as he tried to take care of him.

“Matt...that’s what kept happening when you were home, wasn’t it…” The question came as a whisper, as not even really a question. Mihael knew why Matt hadn’t been sleeping well. He hated that Matt had been going through this without him knowing, without him being close enough to help.

Matt sniffled, nodding against Mihael’s chest.

“Will you tell me what happened?”

Matt didn’t respond for a long minute, then shook his head a little. He felt Mihael sigh.

“Fine, you don’t have to tell me now. But you have to tell me someday, okay?”

“Someday…” Matt agreed softly, letting his eyes close again.

“Okay...just...try to go back to sleep,” Mihael murmured, shifting a little, changing his hold on Matt.

Matt’s arms slid around Mihael’s middle, hands on his back, holding him there, and Mihael offered no protest.

“I’ll stay here, so you can go back to sleep,” Mihael said, sounding tired.

“You sleep too, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll sleep, too. Right here. Promise, Matt.”

The promise was enough to let Matt relax into Mihael’s arms. He felt himself drifting to sleep. His last thought as he fell asleep was that, if this was what a bad dream or two got him, he supposed it might be worth it.

~~~~~

“Matt.”

Matt looked up, eyes meeting Mihael’s across the room. They’d finished dinner a while earlier and were back in Mihael’s room, both on the floor with books all over the place.

Mihael had insisted on studying as soon as dinner was over, and Matt hadn’t felt up to arguing (even though he thought it would have been a lot more fun to play a game or something instead).

“Do you remember anything from last night?” Mihael’s eyes were hard, like he was testing Matt for something.

“Well, you came in at some point,” Matt said. He’d woken up with Mihael still in his bed, so that part was obvious.

“Do you remember why I came in?” Mihael asked, raising his eyebrows.

“I dunno. I was awake?”

“You were yelling.”

“Yelling?” Matt felt his face heating up, embarrassed.

“Yeah, you yelled something. It woke me up, so I wanted to check on you.” Mihael cocked his head at Matt, and Matt wasn’t sure what exactly he was expecting him to say.

“Oh...uh...sorry, then.”

“What were you dreaming about?” Mihael asked, and his tone made it clear that he expected some kind of answer. “I asked last night, but you wouldn’t say.”

“I...don’t remember.”

“You’re lying.” It wasn’t an accusation so much as it was a fact.

“I…” But Matt didn’t have an argument. Mihael was right. He remembered the dream. It was the same dream he’d had in some form almost every night for the last month. It was getting better, and Matt thought he’d gained some control over it, since he could usually convince himself it wasn’t real and go back to sleep. If Mihael had heard him though…

“Matt.”

“Yeah?”

Mihael looked at him softly for a moment.

“Just tell me?” The sound of his voice made it achingly clear to Matt that he wasn’t just being nosy--he was worried.

Matt opened his mouth, trying to decide on a good way to begin to describe it without making Mihael think he was insane. (Maybe he was insane, but that was beside the point right now.)

“Remember that name on all those games?”

“Which one? Matt?”

“Nah, the other one.”

“Mello.”

“Yeah. Keep dreaming that something...bad happened to him. Dunno what.” Matt shrugged.

Mihael stared at him for a long moment, trying to decide if Matt was just messing with him.

“Fine, who is he?”

“I don’t know,” Matt said, shrugging again.

“Well, why’re you dreaming about him then?”

“Your guess’s as good as mine,” Matt said, wrinkling his nose. “You were the one who asked.”

“I didn’t think your answer was going to be stupid,” Mihael huffed, settling back against the wall he’d been leaning on.

“ ‘s not stupid, it’s true,” Matt said, sounding more annoyed. “He’s not really in my dream. I just...know something bad happened.”

If anything, trying to explain his dream out loud just made it sound worse. He was worried about a guy he’d never met with a name that was probably fake. Nothing about that was normal, was it? It couldn’t be.

“Is it the same dream that keeps waking you up and making you look like shit?”

Matt couldn’t help but think there were probably more tactful ways for Mihael to have said that. Then again, Mihael wasn’t the most tactful person he’d ever met. He was direct,something Matt could only guess had to do with his heritage.

“Yeah...I mean, it changes here and there, but same basic dream, sure.”

“Fine, so you keep dreaming about this ‘Mello’ guy. Have you ever seen him?”

“Nope. You?”

“Why would I see him?”

Matt shrugged.

“Fine, so you keep dreaming about something happening to him. Do you know what happened?”

“Nah, just that it’s something bad.” Even as he said it, he knew it wasn’t quite accurate. It wasn’t that something bad had happened to Mello. It was that he was gone and Matt was alone. But that was more than he wanted to say right now.

“Something bad.” It wasn’t as much detail as Mihael wanted and Matt knew that, even as the words came out of his mouth. “I dunno. I just get this really bad feeling, and that name’s all I can think about. Dunno why, just that I wake up, and it’s really hard to shake it, y’know?”

Mihael didn’t know, at least, Matt guessed he didn’t. He tried to imagine what he’d say if Mihael started telling him something like this, if he wasn't experience it himself. He’d be worried about him, sure, but he’d probably think he needed to just talk to the doctor, see if something else was wrong. He didn’t know how he could put into words just what it felt like, that fear and dread that pulsed through his body, the way he felt frozen as soon as he stepped into the room, the way that letter tore him apart from the inside out. Even with only a few words that he could even read in it.

“Mihael….” he started, his voice quiet. “I’m not crazy, okay? I dunno what it is, but it doesn’t feel like a normal dream.” He felt like he was begging his friend to believe him, and some part of him was afraid of what would happen if he didn’t.

Mihael saw the way Matt seemed to fold in on himself, the way his eyes didn’t quite meet his own. Matt was afraid he’d be rejected. Mihael wasn’t sure how he knew that, but he was sure of it. Matt was afraid he’d think less of him, that he’d make him leave the room, that he wouldn’t want to talk to him.

He barely knew what he was doing as he moved, books sliding off his lap and under his knees as he crawled across the floor, settling in next to Matt and sliding his arms around him in one fluid motion.

“Matty, hey, I believe you, okay?” He couldn’t remember ever being physical like this with Matt, but it felt like the most natural thing in the world. He almost couldn’t believe he hadn’t done this before. He could feel Matt trembling a little in his arms, his body tenser than normal. “Matty, talk to me, okay?”

Matt tried to remember if Mihael had called him ‘Matty’ before, but nothing came to mind. He exhaled, his breath shaky, and let himself lean into Mihael’s arms. This was exactly what he’d needed, but he wouldn’t have known to ask for it. He let his eyes close and tried to concentrate on taking deep breaths.

“I just...I dunno, if anyone tried to explain something like this to me, I dunno that I’d believe them, y’know? But…” Matt paused, trying to find a way to word his feelings. He couldn’t think of a single school assignment that was as hard and exhausting as this. “I just...I really need you to believe me, Mihael. I need it.” If Mihael said he didn’t believe him, if he made him leave, or made him go the doctor, or anything like that, he knew he’d probably crack.

“Matt…” Mihael tilted his head, pressing his cheek against Matt’s soft hair. “I don’t understand what it is. But I believe it’s happening to you.” He frowned, not wanting to upset Matt more than he already was. “I’m trying to understand though, okay?” He paused, casting his mind around for an idea, anything he could offer to help Matt feel better. “I’ll help you figure out who Mello is. We can spend some of our evening study time trying to find out. If we find something, maybe you’ll be able to sleep better.”  
Matt felt like an idiot for never considering he should try to find out more about the person. That was Mihael though, very task oriented. It was something they could work on, something that might give them results.

“Yeah...I wanna do that,” he said, sounding calmer, more relaxed than he had all night. “What if we don’t find anything?”

“Shit, I don’t know. Maybe you’ll quit having bad dreams, if you find out it’s not a real person?” God, Mihael hoped so. It scared him, seeing Matt so helpless and afraid like that. Thinking about it made him hold him a little tighter. “You said it usually goes the same way, right? In your dream.”

“Yeah,” Matt mumbled, feeling himself starting to calm down.

“Tomorrow, you should walk me through it. The whole thing, as much as you can.”

Matt couldn’t do anything other than nod his agreement. At that point, he’d have done anything Mihael asked for, if it helped him believe him. He didn’t care if anyone else believed him, as long as Mihael did. Sitting there in Mihael’s arms, he had the sense that, if Mihael was with him, he could’ve done anything he wanted.

“Tomorrow...yeah, tomorrow.” Matt felt exhausted. “Don’t think I wanna study anymore tonight.

“Neither do I,” Mihael said, giving a low, dull laugh. “You should get ready for bed. You look like you’ll fall asleep on the floor, if you don’t.” He loosened his hold on Matt and stood up, reaching back down to pull Matt to his feet. “Go get ready. I can put shit away.”

Matt just nodded and padded out of the room, heading next door to his own to change into pajamas and get his toothbrush. All the way to the bathroom, he felt like he was on autopilot. Everything got done (brushing his teeth and hair, washing his face), but he barely remembered any of it. Instead, he was trying to remember as much detail as he could from having Mihael in his bed. His arms had been around him then, too, and he’d been able to go back to sleep faster than he normally did after a dream like that. Mihael had that effect on him.

As he made his way back down the hall, he wondered if he could talk Mihael into letting him stay in his room, or him coming over to Matt’s room, something so that he could have him there while they slept. He decided against it. Mihael’d already seen him in a bad enough spot. He didn’t want to add asking him to sleep next to him to all the humiliating vulnerabilities from the last few nights. He’d just concentrate on not making any noise when he woke up.

He stopped by Mihael’s room to tell him he was going to bed and to grab the rest of his books. He couldn’t decide how he felt about the way Mihael looked at him, whether the sad concern in his eyes made him feel thankful that Mihael cared or anxious that Mihael saw him as something that needed taken care of.

“See you tomorrow,” he said, trying his best to sound like his normal self.

“Yeah, tomorrow,” Mihael said, his tone matching the look in his eyes. “Try to get some sleep, Matty.”

Matt just nodded and headed to his room, closing the door. It was almost lights out, but he didn’t stay up until the last possible minute like he normally did, choosing instead to get in bed as soon as he’d dumped his books on his desk. With the lights out, he noticed how much the moonlight in his room reminded him of the moonlight in his dream.

No, think about something else, stupid…

Rolling onto his side, he set a hand on the side of his bed where Mihael had slept. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not, but he felt like he could smell Mihael’s shampoo on his pillow. He tried to concentrate on that as he closed his eyes. Having Mihael there would have been better, but this would have to do.

~~~~~

“What the fuck kind of stupid name is ‘Mello’ anyways?”

Classes were over for the day and they were in the computer lab, going through record after record as they tried to find any kind of lead. They’d been working on it for the past two weeks with no luck, and Mihael’s fuse got shorter every single day.

“I dunno. Maybe it’s a nickname?” Matt offered unhelpfully.

“Well, no shit, Matt.”

The teacher watching over the lab shushed them both from her desk and told Mihael not to swear. Mihael waited until she had her back turned, then flipped her off. Matt snorted, turning it into a cough when she turned to look at him.

“You’re sure you’ve never had a last name for them?” Mihael asked, keeping his voice as quiet as he possibly could while still making himself heard. “And you’re sure you don’t know if they’re a boy or a girl?”

Matt just shrugged. “Never actually see them. Just think about the name, that’s all.”

Mihael tilted his chair back as far as it would go, head tipping back to stare at the ceiling. “Maybe it’s no one. Just a stupid name on your game that your brain’s pulling up.” He turned to look at Matt. “Maybe your brain’s just being an asshole.”

The teacher was standing over Mihael. “Don’t swear, or I’m going to report it.”

Mihael waved his hand at her dismissively and sat back up, logging out of his computer. “We were just leaving.” He gave Matt a look and jerked his head toward the door. Matt logged out, too, then followed him out of the room.

“If you get in trouble, we’re going to get kicked out next time,” Matt said, keeping his voice low until he was certain they were out of earshot. Mihael just waved his hand at him again.

“We’re not going to find shit on that computer.”

Matt just followed him, wondering if it was just him or if Mihael was swearing more lately. Not that he minded.

They ended up in the dining hall, with Mihael leading the way to the very back of the room, where they weren’t likely to get told off for being too loud. Besides, it would be dinner time soon, and most of the kids were lining up to be the first ones with plates.

“Your dream starts in here sometimes, right?”

Matt nodded, trying to remember how often that had been. The first dream he really remembered had started in here, but since then, a lot of them started with him already on the stairs or in the hall.

“What then?”

“I just watch there,” Matt said, turning to look at the open doors. “And other kids are around for some of it, but not for long. After a while, I’m the only one here.”

“And then?” Mihael said expectantly.

“I’ve told you before—”

“Tell me again.” Mihael stared at Matt, so Matt took a deep breath and continued on.

“I leave.”

“Good, do that. I’m going to follow you.”

“What? But...dinner?”

“We’ll come back. Walk me through everything again.” Mihael stood up and reached for Matt’s upper arm, pulling him up out of his chair and pushing him forward gently.

Matt sighed, but started walking, ignoring every kid in the room as he made his way out of the dining hall. He could feel Mihael watching him as he walked slowly up the stairs, a hand deliberately brushing over the banister, as if he could feel himself do that in his dream.

They kept going, Matt stepping onto the landing and heading toward his own room. Standing outside of it, he turned on his heel, facing Mihael.

“Do you want me to unlock it, or’s this good enough?” Matt asked, sounding almost exasperated. He thought back to when Mihael had promised to help him find out who Mello was; he hadn’t thought Mihael would get as invested in the whole thing as he had.  
Mihael didn’t say anything, arms folded over his chest and eyebrows knitting together. He looked deep in thought, and Matt stayed silent, waiting for him to say something.

“Do you always go there first? Your room?”

“Yeah.”

“Then what?”

Matt stepped over to stand in front of Mihael’s room and set a hand on his door.

“Here.”

"My room?"

"Yeah."

Mihael scowled, thinking. "Are you sure?"

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Matt sounded defensive. Mihael was the one asking him about this and that, and all the details from his dream, and now it just felt like he was trying to call him a liar. “My room, then yours.”

Mihael was quiet for a long time, pacing back and forth in an effort to use up some of his nervous energy. He went back through the whole walk in his head. It wasn’t unusual to dream about familiar surroundings, or familiar names. The surroundings were obvious, and the name, well...even if they didn’t know who it actually was, the name was in all those games. It was familiar, too. Maybe it was just a coincidence. Or maybe…

“I want to see if there are any records of kids who used to go here,” Mihael finally said. The idea seemed so obvious, now that he’d thought of it. He couldn’t believe it hadn’t come to mind earlier. “It wouldn’t be that weird if your school gets paid for by someone who used to go here, right? Maybe that’s where the name came from, and maybe you’ve seen it other places, but just didn’t think about it.”

“Still doesn’t make any sense,” Matt said, Mihael’s whole reasoning sounding ridiculous to him. “It’s probably just a coincidence.”

“But what if it’s not?” Mihael stood, hands on his hips, staring at Matt. Matt opened his mouth, but didn’t have any sort of response.

“Fine, we’ll look.”

~~~~~

After dinner, they both went to the library. There was a place at the back with old binders. Reports, curriculum, all old school business. There were records going back over twenty years, but only for certain things. For others, the records started abruptly in 2010.

“What’s the point? The school’s obviously been here way longer than that. You can’t tell me their record keeping sucked so much that they just skipped this whole section.” Matt gestured at the section they were looking at, the section of yearbooks. “So they just never had a yearbook until 2013?”

Mihael thought it was odd, too, but he let Matt be the one who was outwardly annoyed by it. He was too busy flipping through the documents from before then, of class records. He pulled one for 1999-2000 and opened it, paging through slowly.

Every single name had been blacked out.

He laid it on the table and the boys stood over it, both studying each page as Mihael flipped through it. The names of everyone--teachers and children--had been removed entirely with such care, as though someone had gone through this book several times, making sure they hadn’t missed any.

They pulled more years on either side and found exactly the same thing. Every single name, anything that could have been mistaken for a name, redacted.

Neither one of them spoke as the pile of documents started to pile up on the table.

Not a single name.

Matt was the first one to break the silence.

“It’s creepy, right? That they’re all like that?”

“Not all of them, Mihael said, frowning down at the last book he’d pulled from the shelf. “2013. The first year they start having yearbooks.” Mihael set the book down. All the names were intact, in total contrast to even one year earlier.

For the moment, neither of them were thinking about their original goal. They were both preoccupied with the stark difference between the older documents and the newer ones. Every piece after 2013 matched, right up through 2022.

“So what happened in 2012 that made it change, d’you think?” Matt asked, his voice quiet.

“Fuck if I know,” Mihael replied. “I’ll find out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back?
> 
> This year's been crazy, but I'm hoping to get settled back into this story. I have the next few chapters just about ready to go and am working on finishing the rest. Thanks to everyone who's continued to read/comment/kudos this fic since the last time I updated! Getting those notes in my inbox is awesome and is helping me get back into this.


	7. Investigation

As if trying to find out who Mello was wasn’t enough, Matt had started helping Mihael with finding out what changed between 2012 and 2013. The hard part was that neither of them had anywhere to start, besides those documents.

“We’ll spend some time on this, and maybe we’ll figure out who Mello is in the process.” But Matt could tell that Mihael was more invested in the new project. It was more than his just being interested in some past school gossip. Mihael approached this project like it was an assignment. No, more than an assignment. More like it was a mission, like it was something he had to solve. The way he approached it, it was like he didn’t have a choice.

For several weeks after they first found the discrepancy, Mihael spent all his free time in the library, documents on one side, his notebook on the other, as he tried to piece things together. It was an obsession.

Matt had asked him why he was so invested, but had never really gotten an answer. He doubted Mihael could even explain it.

Summer ended and their usual class schedules began again. September was busy, but Mihael still found time to spend in the library, even if it was less than before.

One evening, toward the end of September, both boys were in the library, Matt on a computer, still trying to find some mention of someone named Mello anywhere that would have connected back to the games, his benefactor, or the school. Mihael had his nose buried in school records, and some part of Matt wondered what Mihael could possibly glean from them. He’d spend so much time in them, Matt wouldn’t have been surprised if he had them memorized.

Matt fully expected another fruitless night, but fifteen minutes before the library was set to close, Mihael found something.

Matt’s eyes were on the screen when a document was slid over his hands. He jumped, caught by surprise.

“Shit, what?!” he gasped, pulling his hands off the keyboard.

“Here.” Mihael stuck a finger down at the bottom of the page, a handwritten note—in text so tiny, Matt was amazed he’d noticed it-- that had been made after the fact.

> **1999 students**
> 
> **main office: 1-3**
> 
> **Don’t Forget**

“Mihael...that doesn’t mean anything. They probably don’t even have it anymore.” Matt frowned, looking at the text again. “Whatever it is.”

“Doesn’t matter. It might still be there.”

“What do you think it is?”

“Student list, probably. Maybe. Or maybe it’s students that arrived that year, or students who graduated, or something.” Mihael waited for a positive reaction from Matt, and when he didn’t get one, he scowled. “Whatever it is, it’s more than I’ve got now. I’m heading to the main office. Are you coming or not?”

Matt knew perfectly well that Mihael couldn’t be argued with when he got like this. Shutting down the computer, he got up and followed him.

“You know they’re not going to let you go through their records. Especially if it’s anything about students. It’s confidential, right?”

Mihael waved the concern off. “We’re just going to say it’s a project, and then, if they don't let us in, we’ll see if there’s some other way in.”

“Other...do you want to break in, then?”

“If we have to,” Mihael said, with a shrug, as though he weren’t suggesting something that would get them into trouble.

“I never said I’d help you break into anything,” Matt said, folding his arms over his chest.

“Fine, don’t help.” Mihael was going to do it with or without Matt there. The fact that he seemed okay with that put Matt off.

“What, no, you mean you’re not going to tell me why I should help you, or something?” Matt asked, irritated.

Mihael stopped and turned to face Matt directly. He stared at him for several uncomfortable seconds before saying anything.

“I’m not going to make you break in with me. But if there’s a list, it might have Mello’s name on it, so it’ll help you, too.” Mihael blinked at him. “Besides, if there’re two of us, they’ll probably go easy, and figure we just pushed each other to do it. Right?”

Matt highly doubted they’d avoid trouble just by doing it together, but he also knew Mihael was right about the chance they’d find Mello’s name somewhere, if they did this.

“Okay, fine, I’m in.”

Mihael broke out in a grin. “Good. It’ll be fun. Just follow my lead”

Matt doubted it would be fun, but followed Mihael down the hall to the office. There was only one person there, a newer person that they hadn’t talked to much.

Perfect, Mihael thought to himself as he strolled in like he owned the place.

“Hi, we haven’t met. I’m Mihael.” He offered a hand to shake, trying to act as adult as he possibly could as he looked for a nametag, name plate, anything with clue as to what the woman’s name was. He didn’t see anything.

“Nice to meet you, Mihael,” the woman said, shaking his hand. Matt could tell she was looking at Mihael like he was a little kid, nothing more. “I’m Ellen. Can I help you with something? Are you looking for the phone?”

“No, actually,” Mihael said, turning on every bit of charisma that he had. “I was looking for a file. My big brother went to school here, and Roger said I could look for his yearbook. It’s not in the library, but I think it might be in here.”

Matt was impressed with how much Mihael came up with off the top of his head, and the way he lied so convincingly that it was hard not to think every single word he said it was true.

The woman raised an eyebrow, studying Mihael. Matt held his breath. Mihael didn’t say or do anything to suggest he was cracking under pressure.

“I don’t think I’ve heard anything about any siblings being here,” Ellen finally said, as though she didn’t want to directly suggest that Mihael was lying. “He might have gone somewhere else nearby.”

“No, ma’am, I’m sure it was here. I have a file number and everything. It’s just not one of them in the library.” Mihael still hadn’t cracked.

Ellen stared at Mihael for several seconds, and Matt expected her to call his bluff. Instead, she sighed as she reached for a piece of scrap paper. “What’s the file number?”

“One dash three.”

Ellen wrote it down, then set it aside. “Is there anything else?”

“Can you go look for it now?” Mihael asked.

“Sorry, I can’t leave the desk if nobody else is here. I’ll look later, or have someone else do it.” Her tone made it clear that was her final answer, and if it hadn’t, the fact that she turned back toward her computer did.

“Thanks…” Mihael said, unable to keep the disappointment out of his voice as they turned to leave. He didn’t say anything else until they were well out of earshot.

“Well, that didn’t work. She’s not going to look for it.”

“You sure? I mean, maybe she does just need to wait.”

“She’ll forget about it. I’ll ask someone else. Or figure out a different way to get it.”

Matt decided not to ask what other way Mihael had in mind.

~~~~~

A week later, he had his answer. It was the middle of the night and he was crouched in front of Roger’s office, picking it open.

“Can’t you go faster?” Mihael asked, keeping an eye on everything behind Matt.

“Not really, unless you want something broken off in the lock,” Matt hissed back. He could feel Mihael’s impatience radiating off of him.

“Three minutes, then I want to try again.”

Within two more minutes, the door was unlocked and they were both inside. Mihael closed the door quietly behind him while Matt pocketed his lock picking equipment. He had the strangest sense of deja vu, standing in the office in the dark, watching Mihael look over cabinets.

“Help me look. None of these look right,” Mihael said, waving Matt over. The cabinets labeling was all over the place, everything from places to letters, nothing like what they’d found in the document. Mihael finally picked one seemingly at random and opened it. Matt watched him page through a few different files, closing it when he’d decided it didn’t have what he needed.

“The cabinets probably got renamed at some point,” Matt said, shrugging. He wasn’t sure what they were supposed to do about that.

“Well, just check those over there. I’m checking the ones here.”

Matt headed to the other side of the office and started picking through cabinets. They followed the same lack of pattern as the rest of them, so he just picked a cabinet and started working through.

The first drawer was full of more recent documents, all from around when he’d gotten to the school. They might have been interesting, but there wasn’t time to read everything, so he moved on. The further back in the office he went, the more fragmented the documents were. One drawer was just purchases. At first, Matt thought they might have been for the school, but the more he read, the weirder they were. Orders for technical equipment he knew was high end and expensive, orders for desserts and sugary foods they weren’t given very often, orders that Matt didn’t know what they were for.

“Matt.”

He turned and headed for Mihael’s side of the room. “Yeah?”

“Found it.”

“You did?!” Matt exclaimed, getting shushed almost immediately.

“Don’t get us caught! But yeah, I found something.”

The cabinet wasn’t labeled quite the way they’d expected. It had once been a 1-3, but someone had drawn on it, extending the top and the bottom of the three until it became a long, unnatural B. Still, it was the only cabinet in the room that looked anything like the note they’d found.

“Student records,” Mihael said. “Told you.” He pulled a folder out at random and opened it. Sure enough, there was a name, an alias, date of birth, physical description, a test score, and the date the student was admitted to the school. There was a spot where it looked like a picture might have once been, but it was long gone, a few hard spots of adhesive and the outline from a paper clip the only evidence something had once been attached to the spot. “Look, the date’s from 1997, way before the stuff in the library cuts off.”

Mihael took a stack of the folders out and sat on the floor with them, going through them one by one. Matt took another stack and, careful to keep everything in order, started on his pile.

“What’re we looking for?”

“Look for someone named Mello, for one. If you see anything else interesting, I want to see.” Vague instructions, but Matt supposed that something interesting would probably stand out as such.

Interesting finally showed up after half an hour of looking.

“Matt, here,” Mihael said, passing one of his files over. Matt read over it, not immediately sure what he was looking for. Then he saw it. The document had a death date and a cause of death written in at the bottom.

> **True Name:**

Something was written there, but it was violently scribbled out. Matt knew there was no chance of deciphering it, at least not in the dim light they had. He only gave it a moment before moving on to the next line.

> **Alias: A**
> 
> **Rank: 1**
> 
> **Date of Birth: 13 July 1983**
> 
> **Date of Death: 13 July 1997**
> 
> **Cause of Death: Asphyxiation**

Underneath the cause of death, someone had scribbled an addition to the cause in red.

> _**Real cause of death: Suicide**_

Matt shuddered as he handed it back. “Creepy. Maybe we should put it back.” All of a sudden, he felt like he shouldn’t be there, reading any of this. It wasn’t a fear of getting caught. Rather, it was a fear of finding something he didn’t want to see, something that was going to stick with him and make it even harder to sleep than it already was.

“We’ll put everything back, after we’re done, but not yet. Might not be able to get back in here later,” Mihael said, taking the folder back and setting it neatly on his finished stack.

Matt went back to his own documents. Nothing else stood out the same way that A’s file had, but he noticed similar other oddities. Ranks, written once, crossed out, written again, obviously having changed over time. Real names and aliases. Aliases. Every single person had an alias, starting with single letters, slowly turning into words. Like they ran out of letters… Matt thought to himself, not comfortable with voicing the thought out loud in this space. The order seemed like it might have made sense to someone, but Matt couldn’t sort out the pattern. He didn’t ask if Mihael had.

They kept going, each boy lost in the files. When they ran out, they put them away carefully, then retrieved more. Now that they’d started, neither one of them felt like they could stop. That changed as Matt’s eyes finally found what they were looking for.

> **True Name: Mihael Keehl**
> 
> **Alias: Mello**

The true name made his heart skip a beat, his breath catch in his chest. He’d seen that alias so many times, had seen Mihael use it on enough games that it felt like he had ownership over it. That wasn’t the same as seeing both names written there on this piece of paper that neither of them were supposed to see.

“Hey…” he said, reaching to get Mihael’s attention. “Look.”

Mihael grabbed the page and scanned it. He noticed the names first, then continued on past them.

> **Rank: 2**
> 
> **Date of Birth: 13 December 1989**
> 
> **Date of Death: 26 January 2010**
> 
> **Cause of Death: Unconfirmed**

The last half of the page was gone, along with any information or notes that might have been there.

The boys sat in silence, staring hard at the page as though willing it to give them more answers. Again, a place for a photo that had been removed years ago. The thief had left a note though, different from every other sheet they’d read.

> **_Dear Mello_**

Neither one of them had any ideas as to what it meant or who had left it.

“Mihael…” Matt finally said, breaking the silence. “Can we put it away?”

Mihael looked up, like he was considering it for a brief moment. Then his expression changed. Before Matt could protest, he folded the sheet and tucked it into his shirt.

“It has my name on it. It has my birthday. It’s mine.”

Matt felt a knot in his stomach as he thought about Mihael bringing the paper back with him, keeping it in his room. Then again, it was hard to argue that Mihael was wrong. It had two names he used, inexplicably. He didn’t ask what he planned to do with it, or why he was so determined to hold onto it. He just accepted it as being something that Mihael felt had to be done.

“Can we go, then?”

Mihael frowned. He knew Matt was nervous, and not just about getting caught. “Almost. I want to see a few more.” Mihael didn’t say it, but a small part of him wondered if he’d find another name in the documents, one that would match up with Matt. “Ten more minutes.”

Matt just nodded and kept going through his stack.

They carried on, and at the end of ten minutes, were almost done with the drawer they were on, so Mihael insisted on finishing it. They didn’t find another file that he wanted, and he knew they’d cut it close if they stayed much longer, so they carefully tucked all the folders back in the drawer and closed it. Standing up, they took a moment, memorizing which drawers they’d gone through, and which cabinet they wanted next.

“We’ll come back later,” Mihael said. Matt didn’t move though. Without a word, Mihael reached for his hand and started to lead him back to the door.

As they opened the door, they realized their luck had run out as they saw Roger, still in his night clothes, standing in the doorway.

~~~~~

Just like that, they were both back in the office faster than they’d planned to be. Mihael sat in one chair in front of Roger’s big, imposing, old-fashioned desk, Matt sat in the other, and Roger sat behind his desk. The scene would have been funnier (all three in their pajamas) if they hadn’t just been caught breaking both curfew and the office lock.

As old as Roger was, he didn’t handle the day-to-day as much as he once had. Still, he was smart enough to run the alarms he’d originally set when he figured out that past students were sneaking into his office, despite the distinct change in the kinds of students their school had these days.

“Mihael,” he started, sighing deeply. “I have a feeling you started this. Is that right?”

“No,” Matt interjected, not wanting to see Mihael get in more trouble than him. “I picked the lock.”

“I’m sure you did, Matt, but I’m asking if this whole venture was Mihael’s idea.”

Mihael’s arms were folded over his chest and he was staring at Roger in an attempt to intimidate him. “Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t.”

Roger sighed again. He was entirely too old to be dealing with this. At times like this, he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t already retired.

“Mihael, I’d like to know what you were looking for,” Roger said, leaning forward on his desk.

Matt turned to look at Mihael, not sure how he would respond. Would Roger be more lenient if he knew they’d been looking for something specific? Or maybe he’d be more upset with them, knowing what they’d looked for (not to mention what they’d found).

“Nothing,” Mihael lied, and every single person in the room knew it was a lie. Matt turned back to look at Roger, like he was watching a strange game of ping pong.

“Mihael…” and the tone in Roger’s voice made it very clear that he knew more than he’d let on. “I know you were asking about private files in my office.” He paused, allowing that to sink in for a moment before he continued. “Ellen told me you visited her.” He studied Mihael, then turned his attention to Matt. “Where did you hear about 1-3?”

Matt could tell that Roger knew exactly what was in 1-3, had probably gone out of his way to keep anyone from accessing it. He shrugged weakly.

“I found it, not him,” Mihael spoke up, taking Roger’s attention back. “Matt didn’t want to break into anything,” he added protectively.

“Why were you interested in it?” Roger asked, and for the first time all night, the question sounded genuine. He didn’t have an answer to it.

Mihael was quiet for a long minute, until it became obvious that Roger was going to wait him out. He took a deep breath before answering. “I found a note in one of the library books. It said there were records in 1-3, and I wanted to find them.”

“Did you find what you were looking for?”

The question caught both boys by surprise. They looked at each other, as it trying to get an idea of what they should say.

“We did,” Matt said, his voice so quiet that Roger wouldn’t have been able to hear it if his office hadn’t been as quiet as it was.

The three sat in silence, the weight of what the boys knew they had done, of what Roger knew they had done, settling over them like a heavy fog. None of them had any idea what to say about it.

Roger took a breath, then stood up from his desk and walked around to the front. Old and hunched as he was, with the two boys sitting down, he was still able to tower over them. At least for the moment. He looked down at both of them for several seconds, as if trying to ascertain something about what they’d found.

Mihael stared up at him, eyes defiant, as if he was daring Roger to question him, or search him, or take away anything he’d found. Matt didn’t say anything, just watching the two of them, waiting to see who made a move first.

“Mihael…” Roger spoke slowly, and the way his age came through in his voice struck Matt. “Would you like to tell me what you found?”

“No.” Mihael’s answer didn’t surprise Matt at all.

Roger stared a moment longer, then nodded.

“When you decide you’d like to tell me what about my files interested you, please come by.”

Matt wasn’t sure who was more surprised at the response, him or Mihael. He’d expected a lecture, or at the very least a reprimand.

“Now, it’s too late for either of you to be up. Go back to your rooms.”

Neither one of the boys made a move to stand. It couldn’t be that easy, could it?

“Are we in trouble?” Matt asked, looking confused.

“No,” Roger replied. “As long as you don’t speak to any of the other students about this. I’d rather they not know how easy it is to pick the lock to my office,” Roger said, a strange element of humor in his voice. “If you keep it to yourself, I won’t bring it up again. Now, off to bed.” He put a hand on both of their shoulders, giving a clear signal that he wanted them to leave. Matt and Mihael both stood up, Mihael careful not to let the paper he’d snagged earlier slip out of his shirt. Roger walked them both to the door, then gently nudged them out of his office. “Good night.”

The door closed behind both of them, the soft creak the only noise in the corridor. Matt and Mihael walked back to their rooms as quietly as they could, not wanting anyone else to wake up and see them out of bed. When they got to their rooms, Mihael pulled Matt inside of his and closed the door.

“Well, I don’t know what’s wrong with Roger, but that went well,” Mihael said, pleased as he pulled the sheet out of his shirt and laid it on his desk, trying to flatten it out as best as he could.

“He might change his mind,” Matt said, still whispering. “What if he does?”

“Then we’ll apologize and remind him that we haven’t told anyone,” Mihael said, shrugging as he pulled back the covers of his bed and sat down. “You worry too much. He just said we weren’t in trouble.”

Matt wrinkled his nose. Maybe he worried too much, but if asked, he would have said Mihael didn’t worry nearly enough. Then again, that was part of what he liked about him.

“Matt.” His name pulled him out of his thoughts, and he turned to see Mihael, illuminated in moonlight, patting the bed. “Sleep in here.” There was a strange quality to Mihael’s voice, entirely different from the pleased confidence he’d exuded when they first got back. Instead, it was vulnerable, and despite his words coming out as an order, the tone made them sound like a request. Mihael didn’t want to be alone tonight.

Matt didn’t, either.

He nodded, padding over to the bed and sliding in next to Mihael. They both laid down, and Matt tried to give Mihael space, only to realize he didn’t want it. Arms slid around him, pulling him close. He could feel Mihael’s breath on the back of his neck, a few fingers making contact with his skin where his shirt had slid up.

It was the first night in a long time that Matt slept soundly, not a single nightmare waking him up.

~~~~~

When Matt and Mihael left his office, Roger locked himself inside, questioning every choice he’d made in handling the matter. He should have told them more, told them less, reprimanded, rewarded them, back and forth his mind went, unable to settle on the best way to handle the situation. He finally settled on the idea that there wasn’t any good way to handle the situation.

He first went to cabinet 1-3 and extracted the files, carrying them over to his desk. He sat down, and turned on the ancient green desk lamp, and for several minutes, so long that he lost count, he stared at those files, as though he feared he was too old and weak to open their pages. Still, he needed to confirm which pages he suspected were missing.

Roger spent an hour going page by page, losing himself in all the forms and documents that bore his handwriting. His own crimes, laid out in front of him, committed because he’d been told it was necessary. No, it had been necessary. That didn’t prevent him from regretting his part in it. After all, he’d been closer with those children than Quillish ever had. It was easy for him to say it was necessary to put them through the things they had.

He found the extra notes in the margins, all in red ink, all in handwriting that he still recognized, even twenty years after its owner had been found dead in his prison cell, convicted of crimes Roger had never imagined one of his children could commit. He supposed he deserved this, too.

He had to drag himself out of it to turn back to the task at hand. He had a strong suspicion that Mihael had stolen a very specific document, but he needed to confirm it before the end of the night.

The boys had done a nice job of putting the pages away. Too nice. The documents were as straight as they could be, and Roger knew they hadn’t been that way when they’d pulled them out. For a brief moment, he thought about telling them to organize his old file cabinets as punishment. It might have worked, if he didn’t suspect that they would spend more time reading things they shouldn’t than they would actually organizing. The whole idea made him chuckle to himself, a brief moment of levity in what was otherwise an arduous task.

Just as he suspected, one file was missing. Roger knew the file well enough that he could have recreated it, had he wanted to. In the old days, these files had been the only physical evidence that any one of the children at the school had ever existed. He’d memorized most of them, if only because he worried about what would happen if the files were destroyed and he didn’t have the information locked away somewhere more secure.

Mello. Mihael Keehl. Roger remembered all too well the day the boy had arrived. He’d been nearly six years old and recently orphaned. He’d spoken only minimal English, that which he’d been taught on the trip back to the school, and his accent was so strong that it was nearly intelligible. L had stayed for a few days, translating for the boy as needed and promising Roger that he was bright and would master English soon enough. Roger had been skeptical, but the next few days proved that L was right.

L was always right. It was one of the things that irritated Roger to no end. He often told Quillish he couldn’t understand how the man put up with him day in and day out the way he did. The answer was always the same. A soft laugh, a gentle pat, and nothing more. Roger had understood Quillish better than anyone, he thought, but he never was able to puzzle out his feelings toward his ward.

He tore himself back to the present, chastising himself for letting himself lose himself in the past. He knew he did that entirely too often, and it seemed to be getting worse the older he got. He needed to confirm that one other file was missing.

He wasn’t surprised to find the other file. It had been tucked away in a different folder, one that looked messy, one he suspected hadn’t been rifled through that night.

> **True Name: Mail Jeevas**
> 
> **Alias: Matt**
> 
> **Rank: 3**
> 
> **Date of Birth: 1 February 1990**
> 
> **Date of Death: 26 January 2010**
> 
> **Cause of Death: Multiple Gunshot Wounds**

Like all the other documents, there was a place for a photo that had been destroyed years earlier. Roger’s fingertips rested over the words as he wondered if it had truly been that important to destroy the last known images of every child who went to school there. Had they not done that, he could have looked at Matt’s photo, confirmed for himself whether or not the boy he’d spoken to over an hour ago was truly him.

The conversation felt like it had happened just yesterday.

_“Roger, I have reason to suspect that they’ve been reborn. I’m going to find them and send them to you. Is that agreeable?”_

_"Near...L...I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I don’t see how it can be possible. And besides, you know the purpose of this school is--”_

_"_ _Ah, I forgot to speak with you about that. I don’t believe Wammy’s House is necessary anymore. I intend to train my successor myself. I already have a few people in mind, for when the time comes.”_

 _His smile had always unnerved Roger in a way he’d never been able to put into words._ _“_

_I’d like you to return to Wammy’s and begin running it according to these documents.” He’d handed Roger a folder with detailed instructions, all that he was expected to follow. “The curriculum itself is alright, but I would like to see a move away from the ranking system, for now. It hasn’t worked well in the past, and I see no reason to continue trying to make it work. Not now, at least.”_

_“L, I’m meant to work for you, as his successor--”_

_"Yes, and I appreciate all you’ve done for me, Roger. But I have several other people I can work with. You can retire, of course, if you find that preferable. Assuming you’d prefer not to, I’d like you to take your old position at the school again. I suspect I’ll be sending students your way very soon. Please see to it that they have a real school waiting for them when they arrive.”_

L, in both incarnations, had always been a strange character, and, in both incarnations, always right. And it still irritated Roger to no end.

He’d done as asked, returned to the school and invited students near and far to study there. The costs were taken care of and the education was, as it had always been, of the highest caliber. L’s changes were made, to take the emphasis off of ranking, as well as removing some of the more violent class subjects that weren’t needed if they weren’t trying to raise detectives.

By the time L contacted him to tell him he’d found a student for him, the school was ready, and nobody else would ever be any wiser to the fact that it had been designed for L’s pet projects.

Then again, that’s always what the school had been. The design had changed but, in the end, the purpose had stayed exactly the same. Roger often fantasized about calling L to point this fact out to him. The new L had never been any more fond of the original L than Roger was, and to tell him how completely similar the two were would have given Roger great joy.

He supposed that would be something he’d wait to do until he was on his death bed. Which he suspected wouldn’t come nearly as soon as it should have. He was getting used to outliving even his youngest acquaintances.

Roger packed the documents back up, but saved out the record written about Mail Jeevas. He suspected Mihael would want that record, too. Maybe someday in the future, he would give it to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm late again! Wanted to get a chapter up for Mello's birthday (31, by the manga timeline, if anyone's counting). Thank you all for continuing to read this!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this. I haven't posted anything for Matt in a long time, but I felt like the tenth anniversary was a good opportunity to get back into this. I originally started writing this for Nanowrimo 2019, so there are several chapters currently being edited and a few more still being drafted. My current plan is to update this once a week, as I finish editing chapters.


End file.
